Click to skip and go straight to the Weighted Decision Matrix.

The first thing to consider is obvious – what’s the decision you need to make!  It could be something simple or more fundamental, it really doesn’t matter, the decision matrix will cope with either scenario.  We like to use it for big family decisions such as where to go on holiday or what sort of car do we get next.  You can all look at the screen, decide on the factors involved and then debate the scores and when you do that all angles are covered.  Coming soon, you’ll be able to save the decision you reached and send it to your friends and family via email, Facebook or Twitter!  So, what to do…

1. As above, choose the question to answer, double click on the “Type your question here” cell and type it in

2. Next you need to decide on the factors involved in the decision you are making.  When considering the question think Who, When, Why, What and How to prompt you to think of everything you need to.  Look at our example on the home page to get you started.

3. Now you need to weight the factors you settled on in 2.  It’s easiest to do this by giving the most important factor a value of 5 and the least important a value of 1.  It’s important to do this but if you really can’t decide on the order it is okay to give two factors a weighting that is the same.  We don’t recommend it as you are less likely to get a clear result but hey, that’s up to you.

4. List all of your possible options on the options row next, any order you like.

5. The final step is to score all of your options out of 5 or 10 or even a hundred against all of the different factors.  So option A may score a 5 for the first factor but only a 1 for the second but both could end up with the same weighted score depending on how you set up the weightings in step 3.  Confused?  Just have a go and it will all become clear.

We will be making a video to show all of this shortly so don’t forget to come back soon to check it out but if you get really stuck you can tweet us or ask a question on Facebook as well.  Have fun!

“People say I’m indecisive, but I don’t know about that.” – George Bush

Even a former president who is supposed to be the leader of millions can suffer from indecision so what chance have we all got!  Deciding on a quote to publish here wasn’t all that difficult (thanks George!) but everyday just about everyone will hesitate at least once whilst coming to a decision, but why?

There are lots of reasons and whilst we are not experts by any stretch we can easily identify some of them.  Everyone likes to be liked (heck you can even like this post!) and even if that isn’t at the conscious level, sub-consciously we all want acceptance and praise for what we do and how we behave.  We hesitate because of social pressure and what others think.  Turn that on its head for a moment and consider this, what are they thinking if we do dilly-dally?  Not making a decision is often frowned upon more in our social circles so think on that next time you can’t make your mind up!

Of course we all worry about consequences to.  You make a decision and you have to live with it so that fear preys on your mind and stops clear thinking.  Sports professionals understand this and have strategies to overcome it.  Clive Woodward (Manager of the Rugby World Cup winning England team in 2003) emphasised this and had his players using the TCUP mantra (Thinking Clearly Under Pressure) to great ends.  Think of the weighted decision matrix as a crutch to aid your clear thinking.

Lack of knowledge is often cited as a reason for hesitation in decision making but is there really any excuse these days with all the information out there on the web?  Anyone can research on the web so is it unfair to accuse some people of being lazy, probably not!

Sometimes the lack of a decision is more damaging than taking the wrong decision.  We say, get motivated and get on with it!  Use the weighted decision matrix to at least get you started and once the decision is made, don’t dwell on it – move on and take action.  If it helps, concentrate on how to implement the decision rather than why you took it.

Indecision can also come about because the real decision is actually about your motives.  What’s more important: you or everyone else affected by what you do?  Settling on the answer to that often gives you the direction to go in.

Finally, is it just too simplistic to tell someone to have faith in their intuition, back yourself and go for it or is that actually the most helpful thing to do?  That approach might even be a bit old fashioned but on the other hand are we encouraged to discuss our indecisiveness too much these days?  Discuss in the comments please!